dontcallmebecky

getting crafty again

Thank goodness for Daylight Savings Time and remnants of jet lag. I was up at 7:30 on Sunday, and if you know me, I'm lucky if I get up before 11AM voluntarily (a morning person I am not)! I spent most of the day sewing blocks and quilt tops and it was so nice to work on projects that were moved to the back burner before our trip.

I finished the quilt top for Amanda's Nine Patch a Day Along. These blocks have been sitting in my craft closet since early in the summer and I was so relieved to finish up the top. I'm hoping to get to IKEA sometime this week to stock up on some twin flat sheets for quilt backings so that I can work on finishing the quilt this weekend.

Last night I cut out lots of triangles for a new quilt project. I think I'm going to make a large version of my trusty nested diamond baby quilt (here and here).

 

Because I have so many unfinished projects sitting in my crafting stash, I decided to join in on Jacquie's aptly timed "Joy in the New Year Challenge" to help spur me on to finishing up some things around here. I've got 14 projects to finish up this year and I think I can manage it all before the end of the year. Wish me luck!

yard sale finds

I come from a long line of thrift store and yard sale shoppers. My grandma is the queen of bargain shopping! If I ask her to find me some random item, she'll find it within a week. Me, I don't usually have such luck. My aunt has the bargain shopping gene too and she found these two fun items for me a few weeks ago.

First, an old twin-sized quilt top (complete with batting and backing fabric). I love the intricate star pattern in these blocks. Any ideas on the name of this pattern? I'm definitely going to be basting, quilting and binding this top into a quilt soon.

Then, she found this weaving loom kit. She knew that I wanted to try weaving and found this wooden rigid heddle loom (I think). The directions are kind of mildewed shut, so I'm going to scavenge around the internet to find some instructions for setting up the loom. (Yes, this is another fiber project that I don't have time for, I realize).

Bring on the owls

Our house has been a tad bit owl obsessed lately...

First off...I started this sweater (ravelry link) in June and I finally managed to sew on all 44 buttons and weave in the ends at the beginning of August. Thank goodness for a sewing machine that sews on buttons! I don't know what I would have done if I had to sew on all of those buttons by hand. Instead of following the pattern, I followed Elizabeth Zimmerman's recipe for a yoked sweater and then used the owl pattern in the yoke section (modified to use purl stitches in the owl's body). I shortened the sleeves on the pattern too, because wool sweaters just get too warm for me in the winter. It either has to be a cardigan or short-sleeved for a wool sweater to work for me. This was a quick knit and it was so nice to knit with thick, sheepy, Cascade Eco Wool!

• • •

Next, my youngest sister, Rachel, and I got together for another sewing lesson. She found this bag on etsy and we copied the design to a T. Rachel did all of the applique on this with a zig zag stitch and she did such a great job on it! It's been a lot of fun having a fellow crafter over to make projects together.

When we were younger, we pretended we were on Martha Stewart's cooking show whenever we cooked together. We would stand behind the peninsula in my parents' kitchen, talk to the camera and set up all of our ingredients in miniature bowls so that we could toss them into the bowl (just like on tv). If she keeps up with these mad sewing skills, we'll be ready to start our own "crafting show" on the side too. :)

2008 Finished Projects

In keeping with last year's tradition, here's a mosaic of the projects that I completed in 2008. Although I was busy with school for half of the year, I still managed to complete a lot of projects.

And, what's on tap for this year? I've been stocking up on some yarn for knitting projects, so I hope to finish a few sweaters and my zig zag afghan, and learn how to do stranded/fair isle color work. I've found that knitting and embroidery are the two most compatible projects with my school and work schedule, so look for lots more of those projects in 2009.

Happy New Year!

fun stuff

• A unique and creative gift box from Carissa:

including a paper ornament, handmade leaf box, cute card, mix cd, glass bead stamp magnets and a yummy assortment of tea.

• Walgreens.com

Their photo site is great, especially their poster/calendar offerings. Just upload 2-40 photos and they will arrange the photos in a collage. You can select border thickness and background color (but not arrangement). I put together a photo collage of classic cars that my dad has photographed for my dad's office and one of our cats for Jon's office and then framed the collages with frames from IKEA.

• Fabric wall hangings

We bought this fabric on ebay a few weeks ago and spent about 30 minutes on Sunday afternoon stapling it to canvas stretcher bars (ours were purchased from a local art supply store, but you can find them online here). There are directions for this project here. It's a great way to display fabric that you love. And, it's a great way to feed our Marimekko addiction!

• A new softie from SotoSofties....these little stuffies are just too cute

meet Sherbert the bunny!

• A sweet new wooden German Candle Pyramid from Jon

I have always wanted one of these and I was so excited to open it up on Christmas!

while I was away

in no particular order...

• I watched Jon learn lots of new knitting skills. So far he's finished his first scarf and is working on a set of handwarmers, Dashing.

• I worked on my NaKniSweMo.

Here's the progress on November 30,

and here's the progress today. I'm hoping to finish the sweater up by Saturday.

• I successfully cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner for Jon's family (turkey and all) and sewed these napkins for the table.

• I found the perfect stuffing recipe for said Thanksgiving dinner: Sourdough stuffing

• I finished up the semester (well, about 98% finished)

• I watched and was inspired by Craft in America

• I saw an incredibly inspiring, deaf percussionist, Evelyn Glennie, perform with the DSO.

Now, I've got a month of free time and a long list of projects to do and books to read. Hopefully I won't be taking long breaks again any time soon!

baby gifts

My friend and knitting/crochet buddy, Janie, is expecting a girl this December. She always teases me about preferring to make baby projects rather than having my own baby, so I had to be sure to make a few different baby projects to live up to her expectations. Her shower was on Sunday, so now I'm able to share the projects I've been working on for her for the past few months.

A baby afghan (yarn and pattern here)

Appliqued onesies

Bibs (pattern here)

wips

My crafting time has been a bit diminished lately, but I am still trying to fit in a few projects here and there. I'm especially enjoying all of the extra knitting time I have between the presidential debates, class lectures and new episodes of The Office.

Size 7 needles seem to be in high demand lately, so I had to finish up this ballband dishcloth that's been on the needles since August...

I finished strip 1 out of 8 for my zig afghan and now I'm moving along to strip two. Oddly enough the maroon/gold strip are the colors of my undergrad school and the green/yellow are the colors of my grad school. I definitely didn't plan that, or maybe I did subconsciously...

I received this delightful bunch of vintage fat quarters from the sheet swap that I participated in last month. I'm thinking about making a stacked coin quilt (as seen in Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts) and finally trying out the diagonal crossed quilting that Jacquie does so well.

I can't start on a new project until I finished this plain spoken quilt that has been taunting me for months. I got a little start on the quilting part of it last month and am hoping to carve out some time to finish it soon! I'm attempting to do a version of the free motion quilting from the sample shown in the book (Modern Quilt Workshop).

another year older

We celebrated Jon's birthday on Friday night with dinner out at our favorite sushi place, a cupcake cake (thanks to my Grandma for giving me this cute pan for my birthday) and present opening. Now, Jon and I are both the same age again and officially in our late 20's.

I tried making this cake from scratch, without cake flour, which was a big mistake. After I had put the cake in the oven, I went back to read the recipe reviews and it only got 1 out of 5 stars. I need to make sure to check little details like that before starting a recipe. And, after attempting to frost this, I realized that I need some lessons from my mom! She puts me to shame.

I've been on a reading rampage over here, both for school and because of the Twilight saga, so not much crafting is going on. I did finish Betty's block, just in time, for the Common Thread's Quilt Bee, though. This was my first attempt at applique with fusible web, and I'll definitely be using it again for some other projects.

fresh food/felt food

Our garden is in full production mode and we've been having fun putting together semi-local meals this summer!

This afternoon, I tried out my new cheesemaking kit (a birthday present from my parents) and attempted to make mozzarella. Let's just say that a caprese salad covered up the taste just enough to make it a good meal. Next time, I'll be sure and use a stainless steal pan, whole milk and cheese salt to make the cheese taste how it should!

We're starting to rake in the tomatoes and next weekend I hope to can up our stock with canned tomatoes and tomato sauce. Jon and I both prefer the cooked version of tomatoes, so we really only grow them to can or freeze them.

My parents also got me the book Warm Fuzzies for my birthday. I went thrifting for wool sweaters a few weeks ago and found four different wool sweaters in one store! What can I say? Michigan is a chilly place!

So, I made this little cupcake and trimmed it with some ribbon that I found at a sewing expo last year. Decor8 had a nice little feature on their booth, Nifty Thrifty Dry Goods, a while back. Unfortunately, they do not have a retail or web store.